Sunday, October 10, 2021



Aston University tells students that it's sexist to say manmade, mastercopy and civilisation

A university is encouraging students to stop using the words manmade, mastercopy and civilisation because it believes they have sexist or racist connotations.

Sociology undergraduates at Aston University in Birmingham have been advised to find replacements for words that could be seen to reinforce prejudices.

Offending words include immigrants, third world, tribe, civilised and, in some contexts, native, all because of their colonialist or racist overtones.

Language deemed to be sexist includes one-man show, old masters, forefathers, seminal and masterful.

Instead the alternatives of one-person show, classical arts or artists, ancestors, classical or formative, and domineering should be used.

The document was leaked by a student who was too worried about reprisals to complain, said Toby Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union.

A university spokesman told The Times: ‘Sociologists are trained to think critically about language, and about how language can reproduce effects of power and exclusion.’

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Equality watchdog chief condemns 'disgraceful' attacks against Sussex University professor by trans rights mob as she calls on other institutions to 'stop these attacks on freedom of speech'

She's very "incorrect"

The head of the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission has slammed the attacks on a Sussex University professor who was branded a 'transphobe', and demanded tougher regulation for social media companies to curb online abuse.

In her public letter, the equality watchdog chief agreed that 'trans rights must be protected', but reiterated the importance of academic integrity and freedom of expression on university campuses across the UK.

Professor Kathleen Stock, 48, an expert in gender and sexual orientation who works for the University of Sussex, was branded a 'transphobe' by outraged students, who erected posters denouncing her and called for her to be fired.

Signs put up this week in the pedestrian tunnel connecting Falmer train station to the university's campus under the A27 said Ms Stock 'makes trans students unsafe' and 'we're not paying £9,250 a year for transphobia'.

It comes after Sussex Police launched an investigation into whether a university philosophy professor was a victim of harassment after she faced a campaign of 'bullying' over her views on trans rights - as students were warned they could be disciplined.

Ms Stock has also spoken out, telling her 46,000 Twitter followers: 'If you work where I do, and you know what's happening to me at the moment (which I'll discuss at later date), this is the time to say something about it. Not for me, but for you. What kind of future does a university have where intimidation determines what is said or taught?'

The group leading the protests against her is an anonymous collective called 'Anti Terf Sussex', which describes itself as an 'unaffiliated network of queer and trans students'. 'Terf' means a 'trans-exclusionary radical feminist'.

Ms Stock has repeatedly insisted in the past that she is not a transphobe, but attention on her views has intensified since her book Material Girls came out in May.

She has written and spoken extensively about sex and gender identity - arguing that womanhood and manhood reflect biological sex, not gender or gender identity.

Ms Stock also claims trans women are not women; and sexual orientation is determined by same-sex attraction, not attraction to gender identity.

And she wants a ban on transgender women in women's changing rooms, saying in 2018 that 'many trans women are still males with male genitalia'.

But she has been blasted on Twitter as a 'Terf' amid a huge amount of criticism.

This morning, Professor Tickell told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'It's absolutely clear that all of our staff have an untrammelled right to say and believe what they think. So we take it very seriously if people try to prevent that right from being exercised.

'I have to say I am really concerned that we have masked protesters, putting up posters, calling for the sacking of somebody for exercising her rights to articulate her views, and it is a matter of real concern.'

Presenter Justin Webb then asked him: 'If they are students, will you get rid of them?'

And Professor Tickell replied: 'If they're students, and we can identify them, we will certainly take investigations and disciplinary action, as appropriate under our regulations, yes.'

He continued: 'I think we have to be really careful in universities and in society in general to ensure that we do everything to make sure that where we have very, very complicated and different views that we find the space to allow people to articulate those views.

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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